Ignorance is Mandatory at Planned Parenthood

ADDENDUM: I've been sleeping on it, and I think that we're wrong when we're assuming that abortion advocates are necessarily motivated by a desire to push the women into abortions. (Though in some cases that might be true.) I think the real criteria if often, "Does this soothe her?"

They don't oppose informed consent because the information is accurate. They oppose informed consent because the information is not soothing. They don't oppose showing the woman the ultrasound because it gives her information. They oppose it because showing her the ultrasound is not soothing. That is the criteria -- does it tend to soothe the woman?

The idea behind abortion is to get the woman out of her state of distress as quickly as possible. Note that this is a major theme. Why do abortion supporters oppose waiting periods and parental notification? Because they delay the abortion. Why do they want an abortionist on every streetcorner? Because travel delays the abortion. Why do they want tax funding for abortions? Because getting the money elsewhere might delay the abortion. It's the drive for moving as quickly as possible.

We must seem horribly cruel, since we're willing to present information that, after all, adds to the woman's immediate distress. It's distressing to face up to reality sometimes. That to abort isn't merely to hit a reset button that restores you to a non-pregnant state. That abortion kills a child. That abortion is risking your future children. But ignorance is not bliss, and distress is not cruelty. An oncologist putting a patient through chemotherapy would certainly seem cruel to somebody who didn't understand why he was inflicting such agony on a patient whose illness wasn't causing any real suffering. But the oncologist knows from his experience that the short-term agony is terribly necessary. It's the difference between life and death.

Prolifers know that the delays in and of themselves are often enough to allow the woman to get past the distress and come to welcome the baby. We know this because we have the motivation to tolerate the delay, to tolerate sitting through her distress with her. We can see that it's often the very rush to alleviate the distress as quickly as possible that pushes a woman into an abortion that, on informed reflection, she would have rejected. We know that the information, much like chemotherapy, can be horrible in the short term. But we know, like the oncologist, that short term increase in distress can mean long term benefit. And we're willing to walk through that short term suffering with the woman. Because it's the difference between life and death.

The prochoice aim toward alleviating the distress as quickly as possible. The prolife aim toward alleviating the distress while preserving life. Which also means -- fancy that! -- alleviating the distress as honestly and thoroughly and effectively and permanently as possible. Which means that we're in it for the long haul, because doing the right thing often takes time.

Prolifers may be involved with the woman for days, weeks, months, years. Women are still going back to prolife pregnancy centers for diapers or referrals or baby clothes or car seats for two years after the baby is born. They often develop friendships that endure for a lifetime. The prochoicer, on the other hand, never has to see or even think about the woman again once she staggers out the clinic door, clutching her bag of pills and her aftercare instructions. And as a result, they never get to see the damage that we get to see, because it's us the woman comes to with that damage, seeking healing that the abortion supporter can't afford to admit is even there.

This is where you can see the hand of Satan.

The woman is distressed. The abortion advocates want to alleviate the distress as quickly as possible. What can possibly be wrong with that?

Well, that it does damage. It's killing. It wounds the woman deeply and permanently.

Well-intentioned people doing terrible evil, harming the very people they want to help. Feeding the woman soothing lies, withholding distressing truth. That is the work of the Father of Lies. Done by people who only want to help.

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